In this episode I get to talk to Sathnam Sanghera - author of EmpireLand: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain, memoir The Boy With the TopKnot and a novel, Marriage Material. In addition, Sathanm is a writer for The Times and a presenter for Channel 4.
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Below is a rough breakdown of the conversation, as usual, it was an absolute blast.
00:00 - Introduction
01:30 - Leaving Wembley at the end of the EURO 2020 final
02:40 - Upbringing
04:00 - Parents arriving in the UK in the 1960s
05:38 - What was Wolverhampton like growing up?
07:31 - What led you to write Empireland?
10:38 - What were the reactions to Empireland when it was first published?
12:39 - Football, Priti Patel and racism.
15:38 - What goes into producing something like Empireland?
19:11 - Martial Race Theory
21:45 - "You can't review the history of Empire like it's a bloody kettle on Amazon."
23:05 - Imperial history often being monolithic in nature
25:26 - British Empire and Nazi Germany
29:00 - Dangers of making comparisons between the British Empire and Nazi Germany
30:05 - Anti-semitism within Europe before WWII
30:54 - "Every Empire rests on force, the British were not habitually cruel."
31:45 - What fuelled the violence and barbarity of the British Empire?
35:24 - Inheritance of law enforcement practices within post-colonial nations
38:28 - Statues
41:24 - How to make imperial history part of normal history
43:42 - Jane Austen and slavery
44:43 - Was profit the driving force behind the Empire?
47:10 - Legacy of Empire, recent events and privilege
49:20 - Empire Day 2.0 and the East India Company
51:13 - Final thoughts
